Warsh has made previous stops as a Morgan Stanley investment banker, an adviser to former President George W. Bush and a Fed board member, making him about as establishment as it gets. (Warsh’s wife is also the granddaughter of cosmetics magnate Estée Lauder.) It’s a notable choice for a president known for distrusting institutionalists and lauding disruptors.
It’s all about keeping the Epstein network flourishing:
President Trump with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, right, and his brother U.A.E. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, left, in Abu Dhabi in May. Alex Brandon/Associated Press
‘Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company
$500 million investment for 49% of World Liberty came months before U.A.E. won access to tightly guarded American AI chips
Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars, according to company documents and people familiar with the matter. The buyers would pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities.
The deal with World Liberty Financial, which hasn’t previously been reported, was signed by Eric Trump, the president’s son.
wsj.com
Sounding the alarm:
Senator Elizabeth Warren is sounding the alarm on Trump’s ‘spy sheikh’ crypto deal
Senator demands probe after report links Emirati intelligence chief to secret investment in U.S. crypto venture.
The Wall Street Journal found that the deal, signed by Eric Trump, sent $187 million to Trump family entities and at least $31 million to entities tied to Trump ally and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, months before the Trump administration approved advanced AI chip sales to the UAE.
Trump family has a claim on 75% of net revenues from World Liberty’s token sales
World Liberty’s tokens are non-tradeable; holders cannot vote for a share in profits
Critics warn of potential conflicts of interest with president’s involvement in crypto
Over $280 million raised from buyers purchasing $1 million or more in $WLFI tokens
LONDON/NEW YORK, March 31 (Reuters) – As World Liberty Financial raised more than half a billion dollars, President Donald Trump’s family took control of the crypto venture and grabbed the lion’s share of those funds, aided by governance terms that industry experts say favor insiders.
Launched last fall, World Liberty’s goal is to allow people to access financial services using cryptocurrencies and without intermediaries like banks in what is called decentralized finance, or DeFi. But it has yet to launch a public platform and has reported only a small staff, a review of the project shows.
Even so, World Liberty said in mid-March it had raised $550 million selling so-called governance tokens. Most of those sales took place after Trump’s election win in November, Reuters calculations show.
The tokens, which go by the symbol $WLFI, give holders the right to vote on changes to the project’s underlying code and to signal their opinion on its direction and plans. They cannot be traded.
As its fundraising got traction, World Liberty disclosed in January that the Trump family had taken control of the business, a review of changes in the fine print on World Liberty’s website shows. Two of its co-founders, crypto entrepreneurs Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, were replaced as the controlling parties of World Liberty by an entity in which the Trump family holds a 60% stake.
The changes have not been previously reported.
Overall, the Trump family now has a claim on 75% of net revenues from token sales and 60% from World Liberty operations once the core business gets going. The arrangement means the Trump family is currently entitled to about $400 million in fees. After World Liberty’s co-founders take their cut, the crypto venture will be left with 5% of the $550 million raised to date to build the platform, according to Reuters calculations.
The arrangements, including the Trump family’s large share of the project’s revenues and the non-tradeable nature of the governance tokens, make World Liberty unusually centralized for the industry, according to a survey of the practices of the five largest DeFi lending platforms and interviews with four U.S. academics who study the crypto industry.
“It’s hard for me to see any economic benefit to the owner of these tokens,” said Jim Angel, an associate professor at Georgetown University who has written about DeFi regulation.
David Krause, a longtime finance professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee who recently published a study of World Liberty, said that the structure of the project “pretty much excludes public investors or token holders from any meaningful financial participation.”
Note:
In a photo:
Crypto czar David Sacks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Executive Director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets Bo Hines attend the White House Crypto Summit at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 7, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
Andrew worked with Gaddafi ally and Epstein to arrange Middle East loan
Former prince discussed setting up financial deal between Libya and Dubai, Epstein files show
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor discussed arranging billions in loans from Libya to Dubai in the last years of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, emails from the Epstein files show.
The former prince discussed a possible deal with Jeffrey Epstein and Terence Allen, a United Arab Emirates-based investment banker, in 2010, the communications show.
Questions have previously been raised about his “very close” friendship with Saif Gaddafi, the son of the former Libyan leader, and Tarek Kaituni, a convicted Libyan gun smuggler.
In a June 2010 email, Mr Allen asked the then Duke of York if there was “anything I can do there for you”, referring to a planned meeting with Bashir Saleh Bashir, a close ally of Gaddafi, in Johannesburg the following month.
Mr Allen and Mr Mountbatten-Windsor then discussed the possibility of arranging a loan worth up to “3 b” from Libya to Dubai, the currency of which was not clear.
The emirate had been badly affected by the 2008 financial crash, and raised billions of dollars in loans and bond sales in the following years
Jes Staley’s Jeffrey Epstein Links Exposed in Court Docs
Explosive new court documents have laid bare the extensive relationship between former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, revealing troubling financial connections and personal visits.
The Prison Visit Revelation
Among the most damning evidence are emails from 2009 showing Staley travelled to visit Epstein while the convicted sex offender was serving time in a Florida prison. The correspondence indicates Staley made the journey to maintain contact with his associate, despite Epstein’s registered sex offender status and ongoing legal troubles.
Fed holds rate steady as recent dollar slide fuels Bitcoin, crypto debate
Jan 28, 2026
The FOMC paused rate cuts, but a weakening dollar may be doing the easing instead, reshaping expectations for Bitcoin, crypto markets and US monetary policy.
Complaint Accuses Trump’s Criminal Attorney of “Blatant” Crypto Conflict in His Role at DOJ
A watchdog group is seeking an inspector general investigation into Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche after ProPublica reported that he had ordered changes to crypto prosecutions while owning more than $150,000 in digital assets.
SEC drops lawsuit against Winklevoss twins’ crypto firm
Move comes as the SEC has taken a series of friendly stances towards the cryptocurrency industry under Trump
ReutersMon 26 Jan 2026 18.04 GMTShare
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday agreed to dismiss its enforcement case against a cryptocurrency exchange founded by the billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, after investors in its lending program recovered their assets in full.
Guardian
How “Bitcoin Jesus” Avoided Prison, Thanks to One of the “Friends of Trump”
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
borderslynn 
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